My dad often made clam chowder around the holidays as a special treat for Thanksgiving or Christmas, which elevated its status in my family. When Dad brought home clams, we always knew what that meant. I’m not exactly sure where or when he learned to make clam chowder, but he did pick up a lot of recipes while he was in the army. I like to imagine that some tough, tattooed cook taught it to him on the sly during mess hall duties.
This is a classic chowder, hearty and creamy, and serving it with crusty bread or oyster crackers makes it extra satisfying. All things being equal, though, I really like this over rice, too. You can also make the soup thicker and serve it with linguini like a clam sauce. Try it out!
You can learn a lot about ice just by looking at it. A pristinely clear cube tells you it’s made from pure water in a perfect crystal lattice. Cloudy ice signals impurities, absorbed gases, and irregular crystals. Those impurities (such as chlorine or fluoride) impart unwanted flavors, while absorbed gases (like oxygen and nitrogen) and irregular crystals weaken cubes, making them more prone to shattering while shaking. This creates many unwanted ice shards that will overdilute your cocktail. Bartenders go to obsessive, time-consuming lengths to achieve perfectly clear ice for craft cocktails, but we just wanted an easy at-home technique to get us as close to clear as is practical.
Adapted from A New Way to Cook by Sally Schneider, (Artisan 2001).